Imagination Technologies agrees Java collaboration with Oracle - UPDATE

Imagination Technologies has agreed two deals to strengthen its MIPS architecture into a more serious competitor for ARM.The FTSE 250 company announced a collaboration with US technology giant Oracle to enhance Java computer programming language for embedded applications and the Internet of Things, and has also jointly created a new open-source foundation called 'prpl' to support MIPS.The pair said they were developing Java to support the MIPS computer architectures for a wide range of uses in high-volume markets, and will work together to improve Java on systems using Imagination's PowerVR graphics.With more than three billion units shipped, MIPS is one of the world's leading CPU architectures. Imagination Technologies bought its creator, MIPS Technologies, in 2013.Oracle's Vice President for Java and Internet of Things, Nandini Ramani, said: "The MIPS architecture is widely used in networking, embedded and other key markets. We are excited to see the differentiated feature set that Imagination has laid out in its roadmap for MIPS, and we are seeing increasing demand for optimized Java support for MIPS."Through this new relationship with Imagination, we are strengthening the presence of Java in a range of high-volume markets."With broad Java support for MIPS 32-bit and 64-bit instruction set architectures, licensees can use the platform for a broad range of applications including routers, wireless access points, residential gateways, next-generation consumer premises equipment, other networking equipment, mobile devices, Internet of Things, embedded applications and more. Java is the foundation for a broad range of networked applications and is a global standard for developing and delivering embedded, web-based and enterprise content, and applications. Also, the company said prpl was to be developed as an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture and open to others with a focus on enabling next-generation portable software and virtualised architectures.Broker Shore Cap said: "We see these two initiatives as important steps to developing the MIPS architecture into a serious competitor for ARM across many use cases."Shore explained that initial domains targeted by prpl include data centre, networking, digital home and embedded/IoT, where each member will provide value to the prpl foundation based on their particular expertise and focus on their core domains. "For instance to the Linux community, prpl will contribute popular OS distributions for MIPS including Android, Chromium OS, Debian, Redhat, Tizen, Ubuntu, and WebOS."Shares in IMG were up 6.74% to 223.4p at 12:45 on Thursday.OH